Getting to Know You
by SilverWolf7
Summary: For reasons unknown to Jackie and the Doctor, the two have switched bodies. Rose is just as clueless. Jackie and the Doctor learn a lot about the other as they team together to try and right what has happened.
1. Chapter 1

This ones for BarbMacK on this site and for my doctorwho100 prompt how? with my claim of Jackie Tyler. Not finished, so will come in segments. Because I have had this story in my head for a very long time. Ninth Doctor fic.

**Title:** Getting to Know You

**Rating: **M (for later)

**Prompt:** #081 – How?

**Claim:** Jackie Tyler

**Summary:** For reasons unknown to Jackie and the Doctor, the two have switched bodies. Rose is just as clueless. Jackie and the Doctor learn a lot about the other as they team together to try and right what has happened.

Getting to Know You

It had been a long day, made harder still by the pounding headache Rose now had by the current battle that had started over one stupid little thing. Her of course, it was always about her. Who should have her, who shouldn't, whether she should be able to have rights or not, so on so forth. Either way you looked at it, the Doctor and her mother never stopped arguing over the smallest thing and it was driving her crazy.

The Doctor had his arms clenched tightly in front of him, probably creasing the leather of his jacket more than it already was, and it hid the nice dark green jumper he had chosen to wear under it. Her mother on the other hand had her hands on her hips, her top heaving along with each breath as she yelled at him for not bringing her home for her birthday which happened to have been the day before.

It had been a slight miscalculation on the Doctor's part. He had been taking her home for her 20th, but at least he only missed the day by one. It was just a shame that her mum had heard the TARDIS and ran out in a fury before he could correct it.

If she could have gotten a word in edgewise, as the Doctor began his defence, she would have pointed out two things. 1) That they should stop yelling and try to talk it out in much quieter tones, and 2) that maybe it would be best not to have stupid fights like this out on the streets where a crowd could be drawn.

She discretely walked the few steps back to the TARDIS and closed the door, glad that the old girl had a habit of locking herself when her door was closed. The last thing they needed was one of the gawking onlookers to see inside and catch sight of something they really shouldn't.

She wondered when she began calling the TARDIS 'old girl'. The Doctor must be rubbing off on her a bit.

"Mum, Doctor, please! There are people watching!" she said loudly enough to get their attention, then watched as they looked about themselves and felt guilty over it.

"It was just a simple mistake Jackie, I didn't mean anything by it," the Doctor said to get his last say in, before turning back to the TARDIS, took a look at the people standing around watching, and decided to storm off in the direction of the flat instead.

"Like hell you didn't!" Jackie yelled back loudly, before stalking off after him, muttering under her breath the entire way. Rose slowly lingered behind them, rubbing her head, and caught the looks of interest people were now throwing her way.

"Shows over folks," she stated, watching as the crowd dispersed and went their separate ways back into their own flats. "Hopefully," she whispered quietly to herself as she made her way to the stairwell that would lead to the flat.

She dreaded what she would find when she got back inside, so was nicely surprised to not find them at each other's throats. The Doctor was sitting in the armchair he had been in the day that he had brought her home a year late, legs spread wide, arms still crossed in front of his chest, and a sour expression on his face as he watched the current bad goings on in the news. He didn't look like he was going to budge an inch for the rest of the day.

Her mum was in the kitchen, pretending that she had to watch the kettle to make it boil by the looks of it. A look just as sour was on her face.

"You two done yet? 'Cause I don't think it could get any more embarrassing being yelled about in the middle of the streets thanks very much."

"Oi, don't look at me like that, she's the one that started it. So I got a date wrong, I could have brought you back a week late, not a day, but no, that's a major problem that needs to start World War IV."

"If you could drive that bloody machine of yours properly, you wouldn't get the dates wrong. You're supposed to be a genius, Doctor, so go figure it out."

He sat up in the chair to turn around and glare at the older woman. "I've been piloting her for 900 years! I think I know what I'm doing. She's old, and has faults."

"Well then fix it."

"I'm trying! I don't exactly have all the parts I need. Some don't even exist anymore. I'm doing the best I can."

The one good thing that the comment her mother made was that the argument finished, because the Doctor refused to say another word. Rose could kind of understand why. The TARDIS meant everything to the Doctor and she was slowly falling apart.

Going into the kitchen, she closed the door and the partition and glared at her mum. "That was a low blow. The TARDIS is all he has left. He'd be completely lost without her."

Jackie kept the haughty look on her face, though it had slipped a tiny bit of a fraction closer to just being a frown. "Well, maybe if he didn't keep on screwing up, I'd talk better to him."

Rose shook her head. "He isn't screwing up on purpose mum. Believe me, you'd know it if he did. Have you looked at the console of the TARDIS mum? It's made of junk he has to put together just to keep her from completely falling apart. Half the original controls have either eroded over time, or been broken and replaced. I never saw the TARDIS and what she looked like when she was not as old, but apparently she used to look a lot different. It isn't his fault, it isn't the TARDISes fault. It's just...a miscalculation that you are blowing way out of proportion."

Now her mum was angry at her too, nostril's flaring and eyes lowering slightly. "I'm not the one who took someone without bothering telling anyone anything."

Rose rolled her eyes, because this was a very old argument now. And her mum would never be happy with any answer she was given by anyone. "I was gone 3 days of my time. It was supposed to be 12 hours I had been gone, not 12 months. There was a malfunction."

"Then maybe I will refuse to let you go in that bloody machine for one more trip! It's clearly not safe."

A bang was heard from the other room, the sound of a slamming door, and Rose rushed to the kitchen window, desperately afraid that the Doctor was going to get into the TARDIS and disappear on her, and if he did, she knew she would never see him again.

It was with great relief that the Doctor went passed the TARDIS and out into the streets beyond her vision and she sagged against the wall. "I can't leave him mum. I wish you could understand that."

The kettle boiled then, scaring her slightly, but making her mum go and do something productive. Like pouring out drinks. Two teas and a coffee for the Doctor. She had to make sure that the coffee was actually made just so that when the Doctor got back from his walk, he'd have something to have in his hands.

He had a terrible habit of fiddling around with things if he wasn't busy.

By the time her tea was cool enough to start drinking, the Doctor had arrived back at the house, knocking on the door instead of barging in, and holding in his hands a peace offering. He'd gone out and brought chips for lunch. It was that more than anything which clued her off to just how upset the Doctor really was. He only ate chips when he was in a depressed kind of mood.

It made her mum that little bit happy with him though, and they ate their chips with salt and vinegar and slices of bread and butter. For a birthday lunch it wasn't some elaborate thing, but Rose didn't mind. She was with her mum, she was a year older and no longer a teenager, and the Doctor was there to share it with her.

And to her, it really didn't matter that this was a day late.

The small meal was followed by her presents. One from Mickey, who was off with some of his friends for the day, sure she wasn't coming back (that one had hurt) and a few from her mum. For a special treat, she had brought her mum a present too. It wasn't much, just a small dish from the last place they visited. It was a very thin ceramic one, with roses all around it, which was odd, considering the planet it was from had never seen a true rose in its life, and only went by a picture in a book.

It was very pretty though, and her mother seemed to love it.

Her own clothes consisted of a new travel bag, with more compartments to carry small trinkets back in, some clothes for both hot and cold weather, and a necklace with a running horse on it. Mickey had gotten her a scarf for cold weather, a box of roses (as in the actual flowers and not the chocolates) and buried in with them a card, wishing her a happy 20th.

The Doctor looked extremely uncomfortable sitting in the mix of wrapping paper. Shifting slightly, he got up to move back to the chair he had been sitting in earlier, but was stopped and dragged back to the ground by Jackie Tyler, the woman who haunted his every move whenever he took Rose home.

"Oh no, you can be helpful since you got the bloody date wrong. You can clean up."

He wanted to complain, she could see it clearly on his face, and so could her mum. But he got up and reluctantly did it anyway. He was probably afraid of the next thing she was going to say to him which would cut him just as much as a knife could.

Words seemed to be the biggest weapon anyone could have against the Doctor. Put him in a room with a lot of people with guns, or aliens with sharp claws out to gut him and he'll smile and talk them out of killing him, but give him a verbal fight, and he tightens himself up for a hard fight. It isn't that he didn't have the words, because he had a billion of them, no, it was that he really hated that kind of confrontation, especially if words were geared towards hurting him.

And though he tried to hide it as much as he could, he was easily hurt by words.

"Well, at least he's doing what he's told today," her mum said more to say something and get her out of her thoughts. Rose smiled and nodded.

"He doesn't like the whole domestic scene very much, you know that, but he's trying to do something to get you off of his back."

Staring at her, Jackie frowned. "Well, at least I know he can be helpful if there's an alien threat, and is it my imagination, or is there a lot more of them than there was before he came marching in here that first time?"

Rose laughed and shrugged. "Honestly, I think it is the same as always, we just did the human thing of blocking it out and not wanting to believe it. Now that my eyes are open I wonder how I could possibly have missed it."

Her mum actually nodded. "It's funny. I think that's true. I mean aliens. It's so unbelievable, but I know it's true. I mean there's currently an alien in my kitchen! Whoever would have thought? Bloody bastard could have told me he was taking you away though."

Rolling her eyes again, Rose leaned forward, patted her mum's leg softly and smiled. "Mum, you really need to let that go, or else you'll never see how good he can be, or how much he loves Earth and humans. He'd never hurt me on purpose mum, and if you'd give him half a chance, you'd realise he isn't a threat."

Jackie shifted slight and sighed. "I can't help it. The word alien is naturally followed by threat."

"Mum, I've met a lot of aliens, both good ones and bad ones. Not all of them are threats. You ever thought that to him we are aliens? Well, to him every other thing is an alien but that isn't the point..."

Jackie shrugged slightly, looked out towards the kitchen and frowned. "Well if you're done you can come back out. Hiding isn't very becoming Doctor."

Rose turned her head and spotted the Doctor peeking between the door to the kitchen and the lounge room. She smiled at him. "Mum promises to behave herself if you do," she said, though no such promise was made.

The Doctor smiled back at her, and walked back to his chair and sat down, once again going straight for the news, which by the time he got there was well and truly over. It was the only thing he watched on telly that she knew of. The television was turned back off and an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"Right, that's it, I don't care whether you don't like domestics or not, you're staying for a while. I'll make dinner. How about steak? Do you eat meat?"

"Yes Jackie, I eat meat."

"Good, good..."

While her mum wondered off into the kitchen and got out the steaks to defrost, the Doctor lowered himself back to the floor. "Dinner?"

"I swear it wasn't my idea. She wanted to do the same thing before we took off after that time when she thought you had kidnapped me for a year. She's trying at least. Just, let her talk, you talk back. You'll get through it."

"Fine, but can I go until then? Some of the casings on the TARDIS's wires are fraying. Better fix it before someone gets a nasty shock...not that she'll _not_ shock me on purpose for letting her get into that state in the first place. It's a conspiracy; every female in my life apart from you seems to be against me."

"Oh Doctor, that's unfair. You know I'll be ready to do something sneaky as soon as I think of something," she replied poking her tongue out at him as she said it, and the corners of his eyes turned up as he laughed.

"Thanks for the warning, Miss Tyler."

"You need it, or you'll never see it coming."

"Cheeky!"

"Don't you know it," and again she poked her tongue out at him. And once again, she heard his laughter fill the room. Chips and a good laugh, that usually worked in cheering him up a bit, though she didn't doubt that her mum would get him back in a foul mood before too long.

She let him go back to the TARDIS, or else he would probably walk out by the time dinner was served, saving both her mum and him from what she hoped was to be another pointless argument. She peeked outside every now and again throughout the day, looking to see if he disappeared, but the TARDIS was there each time she looked. Once she even saw him outside, going over to a bin and putting what she could only assume as old wires that were replaced in there.

Well, at least he really was working on the TARDIS, that was good to know.

By the time she went down there to go get him, with the imminent dishing up of steak and vegetables, she found him sifting through the insides of his ship, looking carefully at wires. He jumped half a mile when she said his name.

"Dinner's ready. Better go wash your hands and get up to the flat, or mum will throw a fit."

"It's her fists I'm worried about," he replied, rubbing slightly at his cheek, remembering a slap he had once received from the irate mother. It still made her giggle every time he remembered the slap.

They walked back to the flat with him sulking and her dragging him half the way by his arm. Well, since he was technically stronger than her, she guessed he let himself be dragged. It was one of those things she could later tease him for.

By the time they got back, her mum had just finished placing the three plates on the table, a tureen of gravy sat in the middle of the table, and the knives and forks were gleaming more than usual. It took Rose a few seconds to realise that her mum was using the good cutlery set, only used for special occasions.

"Sit down, eat, the both of you."

They sat, and they ate. While Mickey didn't like Jackie's cooking and was always complaining on it, the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Yet again, both of them had had worse meals made of unknown substances on far away planets, so who cared if the cooking her mum made wasn't exactly the best. It was steak, and steak was expensive.

She snorted in her potatoes as a thought came to her about bad food. "Remember those eggs we had on Balgonia?"

The clatter of cutlery on the doctor's side stopped and the knife and fork lowered to the table, he poked at the offending piece of steak, the little that was left, like it was about to blow up in his face. "Why? Your cooking's not that bad, Jackie...I'm sure of that..."

"It's not bad, Doctor. Though I'm sure Mickey'd find something to complain about. No I was just thinking on food. You were up and down being sick all night."

"Oi! I swear...they poisoned me. And you, Miss Tyler were no help at all."

"I gave you a bucket. All you needed. Oh, and made you a few little snacks."

Her mum poked in then, her voice low and angry. "You think I'm poisoning you? Or I gave you bad food on purpose?"

"No, I just said that I didn't think your cooking was bad."

Jackie Tyler had never had her meals written off as anything bad before and blinked. "Now you're just being polite."

"Jackie, if I didn't like it, I wouldn't eat any more. One of the things with space-time travel you have to get used to, trying out new foods and drinks, never trying the stuff you don't like again, unless your stuck with it of course. I am going to eat more steak Jackie. Maybe not eggs ever again, but steak is good."

"Doctor, honestly, people are accidentally poisoned by food all the time. You'll eat eggs again, just not eggs made by weird six legged orange people," Rose cut in, trying to alleviate the oncoming fight.

Her mum didn't like that very much. "What the hell are you doing with my daughter?"

"I'm showing her what no one else can."

Jackie stood up and leaned over the Doctor, and he looked like he was about to slide to the floor form the uncomfortable way he was trying to disappear into the seat he was still sitting on. "If you are sleeping with her I will..."

"I'm not sleeping with her!" he cried out at the same time Rose said very loudly "Mum, we're not sleeping together!"

Her mum raised her hand to give the Doctor a slap that was bound to be much more painful than the first one, but froze in mid swing. Something really odd happened instead. There was a bright light that seemed to fill the room, coming from each of them.

When the light dimmed, then disappeared entirely, she blinked her eyes and looked towards her mum and the Doctor. They were staring at each other oddly, her mum lowering her hand to limply fall at her side, while the Doctor was doing a good impression of a fish, his mouth opening and closing as if trying to say something.

"What the hell was that?!" the Doctor cried out loud, getting up in a hurry and tripping over his own feet.

"I don't know. Calm down and let me try and think..."

"Calm down?! How am I supposed to do that?"

The Doctor got back to his feet, and very slowly walked around to the kitchen, turning on the tap and started throwing water on his face, like as if something utterly unbelievable had just happened. Her mum just sank into a chair and stared at the remnants of the dinner.

Jackie looked at her, eyes filled with something akin to horror and hugged her arms around her body in a very uncomfortable gesture. "Rose? What happened?"

Pulling her mind out of the complete and utter weirdness that was happening to both her mum and the Doctor, she shrugged. "There was a bright light. And it was coming from you and the Doctor and then it went away and the two of you have been acting oddly ever since...why? What's wrong?"

"Rose...I am the Doctor."

The first response she had was to laugh, until the Doctor walked back in. "Sweetheart, what happened?" he asked her.

And then she knew it was real, and all the hilarity of it being a joke fled.

Somehow her mum and the Doctor had switched places.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't realise that this chapter's set out was so mucked up the first time it was posted, so here it is all fixed up. Sorry about that. It may have made it a bit difficult to understand and or read.

Chapter Two

There was silence in the room for roughly two seconds before the Doctor...her mum, grabbed the back of the seat and grimaced. "Anyone one else dizzy?" she asked, and it sounded quite odd coming from the Doctor's lips.

"If you're dizzy, sit down," the Doctor said, shaking his head slightly.

"Shut up, you! You're the one who did this to us. Think I'm happy about it?" A pair of bright blue eyes glared into brown. The Doctor didn't back down, though he now might understand why people might.

"I did nothing! Rose said whatever this was it came from both of us, so if I am at fault you are equally so."

Rose watched as the two got up to glare at each other, and her mum raised her fist again. This time the Doctor ducked and moved a bit away. "And just so you know, Jackie, you really don't know your own strength right now."

The hand froze, and Jackie stared down at it in horror. "Oh god, I'm an alien! I'm male..." and she sat heavily back in the chair, holding her head between her hands and took deep breaths. "And why is it that I am dizzy but don't see everything spinning before my eyes?"

The doctor blinked and chuckled, and Rose had to give him points for that, considering the circumstances. "For the same reason I am not feeling it. You're not dizzy Jackie, you're literally feeling the turn of the Earth. The planet is moving continuously, but none of you silly apes ever gets to feel it."

"Oh..." replied Jackie, raising her head and scowling at him. "Well can you stop it from spinning, because it's going to make me sick."

"Mum!" Rose said, coming to stand between the two to try and stop the endless bickering. "No stopping the planet mum, and Doctor, is there any place you don't feel it?"

"TARDIS."

Short answers. Yep, regardless of him being all calm and centred by the looks of him, he was really shaken by what happened. Considering he was now currently taking up residence in her mum's body, she couldn't really blame him. In his point of view he had just devolved.

"I want in there then...and I never thought I'd say those words."

The Doctor nodded casually, before smiling, and the craziness of it left her mum's face looking more like it was grimacing instead. "Well, then let's go. Oh, and Jackie, are you nauseous?"

Jackie shifted slightly, and gave a small nod. "Yeah, a bit. Thought it might be this spinning."

"It's not. I feel it too. Must be a side effect of whatever..."

All talk stopped for around 15 minutes after the sentence was cut off. Her mum had run to the toilet and was heard throwing up, while the Doctor ran to the sink and was sick in there. Rose stayed at the table, waiting for them to recover enough to come out and sit back down.

She decided that though she was the youngest there, she was the only one healthy enough to make decisions, so, in a fit of nurturing her best friend and her mum, she sent the Doctor into her room, and her mum to bed, and made sure they were tucked in.

Once again she found herself finding a bucket for the Doctor, and this time she found one for her mum too. While it hadn't been the food, and they both knew this, she would go into one room or the other throughout the night, when she heard one of them being sick.

She became the mother. It was entirely embarrassing. Rubbing their backs when they were being sick, cleaning out the buckets afterwards and giving them a few biscuits to eat to keep something in their stomachs. A glass of water to wash away the horrible taste and to keep them hydrated finished of this process.

She went through it roughly 10 times during the night. By the time they both fell into exhausted sleep, she was just as tired, had grabbed a blanket form the linen cupboard, and crawled onto the couch.

She hoped things were better in the morning.

* * *

The first thing Jackie Tyler noticed in the morning as she woke up was that she was starving. The next was that she was comfortably lying on her stomach, something she hadn't been able to do in a while, considering her bust size.

It took her only a few seconds to remember the night before, and the sudden swap of bodies, and looked down at herself. She was wearing a green jumper with black trousers, and it was such an odd thing to see the Doctor without the leather jacket that she quickly jumped off the bed to go stand in front of her mirror to see what he really looked like.

She fell flat on her face before she got there, finding it incredibly hard to walk without slow, precise steps. Not surprising really, considering how much taller the Doctor was than her.

When she had more of a grip on coordinating herself around, she turned and stared amazed at the image in front of her. Because the Doctor without his jacket on was something else entirely. He seemed to look...lighter somehow, like there was less weight on his shoulders. Well, naturally there was, but it looked like the world had been lifted off his back.

Or just maybe it was because it was her in here and not him. She wondered slightly, if he would make her look like she had all the universe riding on her own back?

This was all so confusing! The fact that she was taking it as well as she was, was startling in itself. Maybe it would all just wear off soon and she would be on the ground a wreck of flesh and blood and alien, extra bits.

She could feel two hearts pounding in her chest. And they were pounding. Yet again, it was natural to have an elevated heat rate after a bit of a shock like this. She remembered quite well what it felt like when Rose had left that first time after she knew about the Doctor and the TARDIS. Yep, it seemed normal enough. Except that he had an extra heart, and they seemed to beat slower than her one.

A knock on the door sounded, and it was pushed open by the Doctor, and she saw that she looked the same as she always had when she looked in the mirror. That was good. The last thing she needed was all of the Doctor's worries on her shoulders.

"You alright?" he asked her, coming fully into the room to stand next to her and having a look in the mirror himself.

"You look so different without your jacket on. Why do you wear that thing? And I'm fine, considering."

He shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms around his stomach. Jackie grinned. Not as easy crossing them over his chest right now, considering he had breasts. "You alright?"

"Always."

Jackie snorted, and laughed lightly. It was a sound she wasn't really used to hearing, though he had let himself laugh a few times yesterday before all this mess. "I just bet you are."

"I'm hungry though. Amazed I don't have one hell of a headache. Must have been a clean switch."

"Clean?"

"Yes. As opposed to the messy kind where your brain start leaking out of your ears. Or it slowly drives you nuts. We aren't doing that. I wonder how it is we can remember our own memories, while having a completely different brain..."

Jackie closed her eyes, ignored most of what he was saying and sighed. "Lucky then, I guess. I'm going to go make some breakfast."

She made her slow way out of her room, managing this time not to trip over her new feet, and made her way into the kitchen. She had spotted Rose still fast asleep on the couch and smiled at the sight. Her daughter had willingly given up comfort last night to care for her and the Doctor. Thankfully the feeling of sickness from the night before had vanished after she had gotten some sleep. She didn't think she would have been too happy throwing up all day.

She was becoming more comfortable with walking about, she realised, as she spent the next half hour cooking up breakfast.

She was joined when the food was ready by the other two. Rose taking her normal seat, and the Doctor grabbing the chair closest to her. She wondered if she looked as hungry as the Doctor did. She had cooked extra just in case.

She didn't know if it was because she was currently in residence in a male body, or because she spent half the night with her stomach trying its best to stay as empty as possible, but she managed three helpings, and watched as the Doctor ate two.

Rose washed up and put the things away, leaving her with the Doctor and the spinning feeling she felt last night, only this time there was no nausea and it felt somehow...right. It really did seem to be normal for the Doctor to feel it all the time.

It didn't mean she was comfortable about it though.

She sighed loudly and lounged back in the chair. "Any ideas how this happened, Doctor?" she asked, looking to him for help, as he was the one that usually came up with the brilliant plans to get out of trouble. She didn't know him well, but she did know that of him.

"Nope. Only thing I can think of is something made this happen. Like, say, a wish with a device nearby that can make things like that come true. Doesn't even have to be verbal really. We'd have to retrace our steps back a bit though, see if anything we picked up is capable of doing that. Maybe the bowl Rose gave you as a gift?"

He went over to it and looked it over. It didn't seem like it had any powers of that kind to her. It was very pretty and she would treasure it, but who would have made the wish if that were true?

Silence from the kitchen descended and she turned to look at Rose, who had frozen by the cupboard where the plates were kept. "Um, Doctor, it might be my fault then. I kind of thought yesterday that I wished that the two of you could just get along, because you're always fighting. I didn't know anything would happen by it. It was just a thought..."

Jackie winced and looked to her daughter. "Oh, sweetheart. You shouldn't..." her voice trailed off, unfamiliar accent and pitch slowly turning to nothing. What could she say really? That she shouldn't think such thoughts? That wasn't going to happen. That she should mind her own business? That also wasn't happening, since both her and the Doctor were making sure Rose was smack bang in the middle of it all. That she shouldn't feel guilty? But if it was the wish then it was her fault and she'd just be saying it to make all of them feel better and that just plain felt wrong right now.

Thankfully, Rose ignored this and looked to the Doctor. "Where did we get it from?" she asked pointing to the rose covered bowl with a wave of a hand.

"The markets of Pentellien. You were looking for shoes."

Rose smiled at that and nodded. It hadn't been the last place they had gone to, but it was as good a place as any to start. "Alright, we'll go back there then. We had a good day. Relaxing and shopping and no running for our lives."

She raised her hands and frowned. "Whoah wait a sec...Do I have to go with you?"

"Jackie, you're involved in this whether you want to be or not. It will take both of us to undo it, not just me."

Jackie found she was not stopping herself as she automatically crossed her arms over her chest. Next thing will be her wearing that bloody jacket. "Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."

"Oh, you think I am?"

Rose barged in between them. "Stop fighting...for two seconds, please, just stop it."

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, before the Doctor shifted, sighed loudly and walked towards the door. "Dunno about you lot, but it might be a good as any time to start. Let's go. Jackie, shift."

He was out the door and half way down the steps, her and Rose trailing after him, when he stopped, turned and rushed back up the stairs to the flat. "Be right back, forgot my screwdriver!"

Jackie rolled her eyes and continued walking towards the blue box that was the small outside of the TARDIS. Thankfully Rose had a key to let them in, as it seemed the Doctor's one was in his jacket. Which, she saw was currently being carried by him now, as he ran as fast as he could in her body towards them, holding the said piece of clothing up and pulling out his key.

In his other hand he was clutching that bloody tool of his. He never went anywhere without it. "Here," he said, thrusting the key into her hands, and running in through the door, already looking rather more comfortable in her body than she ever felt she would be in his.

"What the hell do I want your key for?" she asked, closing the door behind her as she entered the TARDIS, and it was like stepping into another world. There was something in the machine-like sounds that felt safe though, and comforting, and in the back of her head she could swear she heard the machine humming just for her.

"Not mine, spare key. You might want it to get back in without either me or Rose. It happens sometimes. Culture shock."

She mouthed the words culture shock, went up to the console and reached out her hand to touch it. It was like touching a purring cat. You could feel it moving even with it being completely still. And then the humming in her head changed pitch and she swear she took it as a greeting.

She quickly took her hand off and stared at it. She glanced to the Doctor who was setting up coordinates in part of the ship she seemed to automatically know was the place to put in time, date and planet.

She sat herself down on the chair that was opposite the screen with odd circular patterns around it. She couldn't read it, but she was sure if she got far enough inside the Doctor's brain she could. It was a good thing really that she didn't want to.

The Doctor pulled a lever and the ship rumbled and the column in the centre of the room began to rise and fall with the noise that she was so used to hearing from the outside. After a small two minutes there was a slight bump as the TARDIS landed somewhere far away from the last place they had been.

"Oh, good girl!" the Doctor stated, giving the console a gentle pat. "Right planet, right time, right date, and a smooth landing. Wish you'd do that all the time."

The humming in her head changed again to something that she could swear was laughter. Jackie frowned. "I think your ship is laughing at you..."

The Doctor scowled. "It really wouldn't surprise me."

Jackie decided to let the odd feeling that this was an unusual occurrence go. She had no idea why that might be, but it seemed the TARDIS was behaving when usually it didn't. Rose sometimes told her about the rough landings, or the date or time, sometimes even the place being wrong.

And yet both had sworn that there had been a malfunction the day that Rose came home a year late instead of just 12 hours. The TARDIS changed tone again, and she could tell it was apologetic. So, either the TARDIS had mucked up or there really had been a malfunction. If she could understand what the hell the humming in her head meant then maybe she could end up knowing that answer. It might make her live a little easier knowing the answer.

"Mum? Oi! Where are you?" Rose said, waving her hands in front of her face. Jackie blinked and looked sheepish.

"Sorry. I've never had a ship in my head before. You couldn't have told me about that Doctor, could you?"

"Ooops." He said, grinning at her. "I'm so used to it, that it never even occurred to me. Just so you know, she can be a right pain."

The TARDIS let out a hum that was rather angry at that, and Jackie giggled, because she felt exactly the same way about him most of the time. "I like your ship." It was another of those things she had thought she would never say.

"Well, can we stop talking to the TARDIS now and go? As amusing as it is hearing the Doctor giggling, I'd rather not have to remember to call him Mum."

Nodding, now afraid of what she might face on the other side of the door, she walked over to it and waited until the other two were outside and urging her through the door, before she would set foot outside.

After all, it was her first time on an alien planet millions of light years from her own home.

She wondered if this was going to go smoothly or if she soon had to figure out how fast she could run in the Doctor's body. It was inevitable really.

She didn't want that place to pop up, but she was sure some time soon, it would.

As it was, she took a deep breath and made her first steps into the unknown.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - Slight talk in this chapter about a certain topic. Nothing really bad, don't worry about that. Just these two trying to figure things out. And one of them is human after all.

Chapter Three

The crunch of the earth under her feet made her look down, and she frowned at it for a while. It looked exactly like the ground on Earth, where there is just soil instead of grass. Slowly she lifted her view. The trees were different though, more wild and twisted with very few leaves, and those leaves were a vibrant purple, which would probably make Rose gush over them.

The grass when she did spot it was yellow. It looked like normal earth grass that was dying, except this grass looked healthy instead of wilted, which made her think that it was normal for this place. Then she raised her eyes to the sky, and was looking at a normal night sky with an abnormal amount of moons.

"Its night time?" she asked, looking about at how bright it was that it looked like day to her.

"Yes. 5 moons keep the planet just as bright during the night as it does during the day. Makes it a very good planet for shopping. You only sleep when tired you see, so the shops can stay open all day as long as more than one person runs them."

It thrilled her, it really did, and she couldn't help but grin like a maniac at the thought of how much shopping she could do with shops that were opened all day and night.

"Does it have extra suns then?" she asked, getting more courageous and stepping fully out of the TARDIS, she went over to the nearest patch of grass and plucked some from the ground.

"Just one sun. When all the moons are full, which happens about...once every millenia or so, the night sky is brighter than the sky during the day."

Oh, Jackie thought as she moved her gaze to wander over to where the Doctor was pointing and there, clear as day, was a huge, sprawling open town market. It was like the medieval equivalent of a shopping centre. Or what she thought a medieval shopping centre would look like anyway.

"We're here roughly a week after our last visit, Rose. Remember where you bought that?" He pointed to the bowl that her daughter was holding delicately in her hands, wrapped in tissue paper.

"Yes. It was very close to where we parked last time. Same place?"

"Yes."

"This way then," Rose stated, waving them on. Jackie moved in behind her, and the Doctor stayed by her side instead of Rose's. Maybe it was because he was shorter? Or maybe he was trying to keep her out of trouble, or stop her from running like a mad woman away.

The people at this place were definitely not human. For a start, they had five arms. Two legs, which was a relief, and their skin was some sort of ruddy brown that you don't normally see in humans. Well, unless they painted themselves that colour.

She remembered the conversation at the table the other night of an orange race with six arms and almost fainted, because there was something even weirder out there than what she was currently seeing.

The Doctor took her to the nearest chair and sat her down on it, before she had the chance to fall to the ground in a dead faint. This was not as fun as it had started out. Seeing the Doctor without his jacket on was a plus, definitely, but now she wished she had it so she could put it on and somehow hide herself in it.

"Just...sit for a minute. Told you it can get a bit much."

The alien at the store who owned the chair was looking at her curiously, and the Doctor grinned. "Sorry about her. She's never been away from Earth before and so hasn't seen another race that doesn't look exactly human or seen anything like your night sky before."

"She? Looks like a male of the species."

"Ah, bit of an accident. That's my body, this is hers."

The alien's eyes lit up with an understanding at that and laughed in a high pitched way that made her ears ring more than they already were.

"Ah, yes. It's been known to happen, but never here before."

The Doctor nodded and grinned. "Well, best to check anyway. My friend's around here somewhere inquiring about a bowl she bought for Jackie." He pointed at her.

The alien nodded and as if to comfort her, laid a hand on her shoulder.

Next thing she knew she was waking up on a bed in the TARDIS.

* * *

As soon as the shop owner put a hand on Jackie, he saw her eyes roll up in her head and wilt. He got to her just before she fell off the chair. He checked heart beats and pulse rates, even checked her temperature. Heart and pulse were up, temperature was down.

"Bit of a nasty shock it seems. Better get her back to my ship. If you see a human girl running around, blonde, brown eyes, carrying a bowl with flowers on it, tell her I'm in the TARDIS."

The shop owner gave a short nod, before he got busy with a customer, leaving the Doctor to drag his body slowly back to the TARDIS.

It was a lot harder than it would have been if he was in his own body, instead of lugging it around. He was a lot stronger than a human for a start, and he tired less easily. By the time he had gotten Jackie back to the TARDIS, the one heart in his chest was beating wildly from exertion, he was sweating profusely and he needed to lie down before he too fainted.

He wouldn't be having that.

He left her in a spare room that the TARDIS had made ready for her. At least his ship was being kind to Jackie. The last thing he needed was Jackie's screeching around because of her.

He had a shower first to cool down a bit, before going to his bedroom. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was asleep. Humans, he thought before completely getting lost in Jackie's subconscious, were very easily tired out.

No dreams had bothered him before he was woken up, and he was put out about it when consciousness reared its head, because it had been such a long time since he hadn't suffered from nightmares.

Lucky for Jackie, his subconscious had a habit of batting down and locking doors when his mind is invaded, and should be safe enough for Jackie. She would either not dream, or have residual memories from her own life, or her short adventure on Pentellien.

If she found something to trigger it though, she may end up with his memories, so the thing he could do was keep her from anything that might do that. The problem with that is, he had no idea what could or wouldn't do that.

It wasn't very likely that was to happen anyway. So Jackie was safe in his head.

He couldn't say the same about himself. Being human, Jackie was a wide open book to him, and he saw everything, and chose to shut most of it out. He shook his head and stared up at Rose who was still shaking him.

"Finally! You really know how to sleep when you want to. Where's mum?"

Slowly he got up and stretched. Unfortunately he didn't know much about women's clothing and after the quick shower he had just put on the same clothes, minus a few items. And he was beginning to feel rather...uncomfortable.

"The TARDIS gave her a room. She fainted. Had to drag her all the way back here. Can you show me how to put one of these blasted contraptions on?" He held up Jackie's bra and swung it gently in front of Rose's face.

Rose snatched it from him and went red. "Doctor! I am not getting naked in front of you, I don't care what body you're in! Stop asking things like that."

He stared blankly at her, before he felt heat flush his cheeks and he looked away. "I don't know how to...I didn't mean on you anyway."

After a few seconds of awkwardness, he took the shirt he was wearing off and looked down and frowned. "Well?" he said, looking back up at Rose.

Sighing loudly, she went on to show him how to put it on. Dressed properly and feeling much better about it, he smiled at Rose and took her in the direction of Jackie's new room.

The woman who was currently in his body was awake, and staring at the wall in front of her. Rose went over and immediately gave her a hug. Jackie managed a half smile, before looking up at him and turning to face the wall again.

"I really didn't mean to do that," she said, trying to bury her head in the pillow it was laying on.

"Told you, culture shock. It was bound to catch up with you sometime. Even Rose ran away the first time we went anywhere."

Rose nodded and smiled at her mum, squeezing her shoulder gently. Jackie relaxed a bit more into the blanket that she was buried in. Her head cocked to the side, and he noted that the TARDIS was probably trying to say something to her. He had centuries of experience of working out what his ship meant, and now Jackie was trying to work it out. Because the TARDIS didn't exactly have an actual voice. She spoke by using sounds, mental pictures and emotions.

Even he didn't know what she meant sometimes, though those days were getting longer between, thankfully.

Jackie sighed. "Alright, I get it. It happens to everyone. And you...you could have asked before touching me in any way."

He blinked, before realising that the TARDIS must have told her about the shower. "I just dragged you all the way here. By myself. I just found out that I weigh a bloody lot more than I look alright. I needed a shower."

She scowled at him, and it looked rather horrifying to see his own face with one of Jackie's looks on it. He took a step back. "Well, imagine the fun I'll be having in the shower when I go have one..."

"Oi! I didn't do anything indecent."

She looked at him and smiled. "No? Nah, I believe you. I'm curious though..."

He closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands, the heat rising up in his face making it feel like it was about to burn off. He had never blushed like this in any one of his own bodies. Humans! So full of hormones. Hormo...oh no!

"Oh bloody hell! I really don't want everything that goes with the territory of being a human. Female _or_ male!"

He could deal with blood. He had seen plenty of it in his time, his own included. So he could handle _that_ part of it all. It was what Jackie was talking about though. Hormones, desires. Jackie was sexually active. Very much so. While he dabbled in sex when he felt like it, he didn't feel the urge to like a human would. It wasn't natural for him after all. He hadn't needed it to reproduce. There was no real desire for it.

"Fine. Dabble away. Experiment. It is to be expected I suppose." He couldn't stay angry at her, and if he was going to have to put up with hormones, then she might as well get some kind of joy out of the experience.

He'd probably be driven to do...that anyway. 'Cause there was no way, none at _all,_ he was going to have sex as Jackie Tyler. That didn't mean he had to be happy about it though. He was on some basic level was disgusted with himself for even thinking it.

He'd ask beforehand. It made him feel better to ask permission if things came to that. It felt too much like sexual assault if he didn't. And at least Jackie told him she was going to. And it really was to be expected. She still had a human mind after all.

And it was a very human thing to do. An ape thing to do for that matter. Hell, a mammal thing.

Right now though, he could just forget about that. This body was too knew for him to even want to try, and it didn't need it, and he supposed he was still a bit shocked over finding himself female in the first place. And human.

Didn't Jackie know that this was hard on him too? That he was slightly in shock over it? That it wasn't just her that wanted to curl up in a bed and stay there until it was all over?

"You're actually giving me permission to? Hmph, never thought I'd hear that coming from you, Mr. No."

He sighed, shook his head and sat down. "This isn't exactly the most fun experience I have ever gone through Jackie. It'll help you relax a bit anyway."

Rose shuddered and walked to the door. "I'll leave you two to talk about the sex stuff, I'm going to go get something to eat. Meet me in the control room after you're...done in here. This place was a bust. Sorry Doctor, Mum."

With a glance towards Jackie, and a slight shrug, he followed Rose. The 'talk' was done with anyway for the time being. And hopefully there was not going to be any need for it to pop up again.

Rose looked behind her and smiled at him, and he smiled back, not really up to keeping it on his face though, and fell into a sullen sulk. How come stuff like this always seemed to happen to him? Was he just plain meant to suffer his entire life? Because that's all he seemed good at doing, suffering.

"Doctor?"

"Mmm?"

"You alright?"

He looked at Rose for a few seconds, blinked and looked away. "Just wish she'd know that this isn't exactly easy on me either. I'm not used to so many hormones and things. I just want to go bury myself in a bed somewhere, sleep for a bit, and just...I don't know. Everything seems so wrong right now."

She looked at him, smiled and nodded. "Yeah well, at least you know what to expect on other planets and moving about the universe, she doesn't. She's bound to be thinking just of herself. It's what humans do. Silly apes remember?"

And he found himself grinning in response, because Rose always managed to get him cheered up a bit. "How could I have forgotten?"

She grinned back, her tongue poking out from between her teeth. "Just one of those small signs of old age, Doctor."

"Oi! That's enough of the old, thanks."

They made it to the kitchen, and were surprised to see that somehow Jackie had beaten them there, and was in the middle of filling the jug with water to boil for tea. "So, what did you find out, sweetheart?" Jackie said, as she turned to look at them, lanky male body leaning almost casually against the counter, oddly looking like she belonged there. The Doctor just stared, because he had never been able to relax like that since his last regeneration.

Maybe, just maybe, there were some good points to this whole mess. If he was really lucky, Jackie would get his body some proper rest. He hadn't had that in a while.

Nightmares. It seemed like he had always suffered from nightmares. But now they were much more intense than they had ever been before the War.

He'd be able to rest his mind too in Jackie's body, since he would dream whatever is in her brain. And speaking of, he was tired still from his work today already.

How did humans end up living as a species for as long as they do? They seemed to be everywhere once they had started off. They didn't have as much stamina, needed a lot of sleep each day which seemed to be a waste to him, their brain was normal for a sentient being with moderate intelligence, and they needed to eat regularly to keep it all going.

Well, they adapt better than a lot of other species. One of the best species in the universe for it. And yet for all that, they had difficulty believing in aliens in Rose's time.

"Doctor? You in there?" Rose asked, looking at him worriedly, and it wasn't until then that he noticed he had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't heard a word that might have been said.

"Yes, sorry. Just thinking. So, Pentellien was a bust then. Where to next?"

It was Jackie who answered. "You're taking me home. You're going to need more than one set of clothes."

He looked down at himself and nodded. Yes, he really would. He really didn't want to do shopping. It was much more domestic than this whole scenario was already getting. Had already gotten, if he thought a little harder about it. He didn't like that. It was too much of a reminder.

"Alright, off to the flat, and then where to?"

The two women stared at him. He stared back. It wasn't that it wasn't a question that needed answering right this second, but it would make him feel better to know that they were actually doing something productive to getting back into their own bodies.

Rose sighed and shrugged. "How about that small planet we went to with just the animals. You know, non humanoid, unable to speak using language...Somewhere in MX5 wasn't it?"

He frowned and thought about that. It was unlikely that they had picked anything up there, though he did notice sometimes Rose did things like pick grass or flowers to take back with her. Sometimes she even collected just the dirt form the ground as a souvenir.

"Lixan. What'd you pick up there?"

She blushed, looked down and said grass.

He loved people who liked travelling so much that they collected things from their visits. It showed enthusiasm. She kept most of the things on the TARDIS, except if it was a gift for her mum. Speaking of Jackie, he had a rather good idea why Rose would have chosen that place. There was nothing there that was threatening. Well, to anything bipedal anyway.

He nodded again. "Alright. First though London. Clothes for me and anything the two of you want you can collect."

With more of a plan in action now, they went into the console room and the Doctor took the controls and sent then to their destination.

Just like last time, the TARDIS landed without so much as a weak tremble, and in her usual spot outside Bucknall Place in the Powell Estate.

Hopefully now that Jackie knew a bit about what to expect of alien creatures, she would not be fainting any more.

Turning off the TARDIS's engines for a bit, he stepped outside and into the so familiar blue day of Earth in the 21st century.

The others followed behind him.

It was only now that this adventure would truly begin.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Staring at the clothes in front of him, the Doctor wondered if it would be appropriate to cry. There was entirely too much pink. Even Rose didn't have this much of this colour, preferring the deeper colour of purple to the shocking brightness of pink.

He searched through the clothes and begun picking out anything that wasn't hurtful to the eyes. He had enough of wearing clothes like that in his sixth form. Though he had been rather fond of that ensemble while he had been wearing it.

There were a few of the horrid colour he picked out, dulled by wear and washing, but at least he wouldn't feel like he was blinding people in his way with them on. Mainly though, he found a few purples and blues. A little green even, though why he didn't know, and he grabbed them.

Jeans, low riding on the hips were alright, though he wondered briefly if he was going to go around showing off the underwear Jackie had in her collection.

He felt like an old peeping tom right now, going through undies and bras and wondering which ones he should take with him. But Jackie had shown him where everything was and told him to pick out what he wanted. It was odd, Jackie allowing him to go rifling through her personal things, even if it would be him who was going to be wearing them.

He needed to stop thinking. His thoughts were turning in directions he really didn't want to go. He left the personal things alone for the time being, instead going through the pyjamas trying to find something he wouldn't mind sleeping in.

He found a pair of off white track suit pants, a few shirts with obvious sleep wear patterns on them, and a rather comfortable looking fluffy jumper for when it got cold at nights. He soon found the pants to match the shirts, and packed them in the bag which had the day wear he had picked out already bundled neatly inside.

He was about to get on to the underwear again when his stomach chose the time to announce that he had missed out on lunch. He closed his eyes and let out his breath in a rush. Humans! They had to eat so much more than he had to, and sleep more, and got out of breath much faster, and were all full of annoying feelings and body reactions he really wasn't ready for.

He felt tears prick at his eyes and growled. Jackie was way too emotional for his comfort. Why couldn't he do what she did and just turn everything into anger and slap himself for putting them through this mess. Now that would be like the Jackie he knew.

A knock at the door and he turned around to stare at the wall instead of Rose, who walked quietly into the room. "Doctor? There's some sandwiches out here for you. Since we decided to stay moving rather than eat on the TARDIS, you know. You've got to be hungry."

"Yeah," he replied, slipping past her and out of the room, going towards the kitchen where Jackie was busy munching on a sandwich of her own.

After the breakfast she had eaten, he knew she wasn't hungry. She was eating out of habit. "Don't eat if you're not hungry Jackie."

She looked at him and frowned. "It's lunchtime, and one single sandwich won't hurt."

He shook his head, helped himself to two cheese and tomato sandwiches, and slowly ate. Once he wasn't hungry any more, he couldn't help the huge yawn that passed his lips. He blinked a few times, felt the utter frustration of the day get the better of him and the body took over.

He burst into tears.

Noisy, wet, embarrassing tears that didn't really make him feel any better at all. It didn't help that Jackie was blinking at him like he had completely lost his mind, or that Rose was on him, trying to ask what was wrong and what she could do.

He blushed bright red when he calmed down, looking at the floor and sniffling.

"Doctor? What happened?" Rose asked, still holding his arms tightly in a grip which was supposed to help settle him down.

He glared in Jackie's direction. "I'm tired from lugging you around, you're eating when it isn't necessary, I have no idea of what it's like to be human, and your stupid body has an automatic timer on it."

Jackie did more blinking. "Automatic timer?"

"It's been a shocking day Jackie, and more than a little frustrating. The automatic reflex you have to deal with stuff like this is to cry. I'm currently in your body, which now makes it my reflex. And don't tell me you aren't feeling it."

Rose sighed heavily and walked out of the flat, leaving them two at it more than likely. If they were going to live like this for any number of days, then the best thing to do was to warn the other about things like this.

Jackie fiddled with the table cloth, before folding her arms across her chest. It was a defensive move he automatically did when he felt threatened. Oh yes, she was definitely feeling the same as him right now.

"You'd rather hide. Or run. You're so defensive and afraid to feel things."

And the insufferable woman hit the proverbial nail right on its head. Because it was true. It hadn't always been true, well, he did have a nasty habit of running, but he hadn't always felt the need to hide. And both those reflexes were much stronger than before in his newest incarnation. It probably had something to do with trying to avoid the giant black hole in his head where his people used to be.

"Maybe I have a reason to Jackie. If you're lucky, you'll never find out why. Tell me if you have nightmares. Really, tell me. I want to hear someone try to explain what they see, feel, and then you can tell me why it is I run and hide and hate..."

She looked at him with his own eyes and it made him feel uncomfortable. It wasn't the first time he had looked at a version of himself in person, and probably wouldn't be the last, but it was by far the most troubling. "I don't know about hate, but you are angry. I can feel that. I also feel afraid that if I let go of that then it will destroy. Dunno what it'll destroy, but it will. So destructive...you're dangerous."

He closed his eyes and let his head fall to the table. "My mind has an automatic lock on it to stop people from entering it easily if they take possession of me, or my mind. That doesn't stop you from feeling. And my emotions aren't exactly...stable."

She snorted and shrugged her shoulders. "I can tell that. It's like a switch has been thrown though, in your mind, I wouldn't know how to go wandering about and looking around even if I wanted to. You're so full of conflicting emotions that you're like...lost in them."

He let out a small laugh that had nothing whatsoever to have to do with humour. "Oh, very good. It's so...nice to have someone know how I feel. Fantastic! And you're automatically shying away from them, which is better yet."

It was wrong of him, so utterly wrong, but he wished then that she did have his memories. Because then she would fully understand what he felt, instead of feeling just a jumble of emotions she couldn't work through. And even then she would still be stuck in the limbo he was.

"You really need to learn to understand your emotions, 'cause I haven't felt this mucked up in the head since Pete died."

He rubbed at his eyes which were achy and tired. "Maybe that's because I'm grieving Jackie. Memory along with the emotion is terrible. Don't only tell me if you have nightmares. Tell me if you start feeling self destructive."

Jackie took in a deep breath and gulped. "Do I want to know? Oh, god, please don't tell me that means what I think it does."

He grinned at her, and it wasn't pretty. "I've tried a few times, someone always seems to be around to stop me at the last minute, even in buildings that are supposed to be empty. If I hadn't picked up another signal when I met Rose, I would have stayed in that building while it exploded. Seemed a fitting end, to die like everyone else did."

"Why didn't you? Stay in there I mean? Sod the bloody signal, and end it if life's that bad?"

He shrugged. "Because I knew there was a chance that the signal would lock onto Rose and go after her, and she...I couldn't allow that to happen."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "Because she was the first person I reached out to touch after..." he trailed off, and looked at her closely. "Do you feel it? Like there is some huge chunk of yourself that is missing? You know something is supposed to be there but it is empty?"

Frowning, Jackie concentrated for a few minutes, before sighing. "A bit. Yeah. I wondered about that. Goes with having a ship in your head and feeling this constant bloody spinning. I thought it was normal."

"It will be from now on. Constant emptiness. Loneliness. It's like the human equivalent of having Alzheimer's, except without the forgetting. I wish I could forget."

"What happened?"

He looked at her and let out a long drawn sigh, because regardless of whether or not she had his memories of the actual events, she did have a right to know if she would be dealing with his mucked up emotions, though she did seem to be handling it alright. She had been genuinely smiling, something he hadn't done in a long time.

"My race was telepathic. And we all were...joined you might say through a link, much like the one I have with the TARDIS. I kept it closed so I didn't pick up on anything or told them anything, but it was still there full and living in my head."

Jackie looked at him with confusion and sighed. "They're all gone. I'm the only one left. A split second left me completely alone. No home, no planet, no people, nothing but the TARDIS."

And now he could see the look of horror on the face looking back at him. It was completely sympathetic, bordering on empathic. He grinned at her again. "The one person in the entire universe I have managed to even try to make friends with and all you do is try to push us apart. I know Rose is important to you Jackie. She's your daughter, and that makes her one of the most important people in your life. I understand that Jackie, because I had a family. A wife, children, grandchildren even. And they're all dead. All gone. I have no one. You have other family, and friends, and humans as a whole."

He closed his eyes, only now feeling the tears that had begun slowly running down his cheeks and shook his head. "I think there is some kind of overlap here. We still feel our own emotions stronger than the body's own ones. I think we'll keep our own memories, but the overlap might fade given time, and then you'll know. Because there is no way you are feeling the full impact here."

He swiped at his eyes, but didn't seem to be able to stop the slow, steady flow of tears. And it felt odd, because he knew that it wasn't the body this time. It was _him._ When he realised that, he didn't bother stopping it, because it was something he needed. Maybe that was the reason why this time he didn't feel embarrassed over it, and it felt good.

Even with the overlap in place, his feelings were not anything as intense as they were in his own body. It was giving him a way to sort things out, pick out an emotion and do something about it, and right now the sadness was top of the list. Maybe it would stay in place. He hoped so, because this was something he had needed. A break from his own torment.

Jackie looked lost in thought. Maybe she was trying to access his memories, but was finding that harder than she had thought it would, but either way, he got up, deciding that he needed to finish packing. He could leave Jackie to her own thoughts for a while.

He never managed to pick out the underwear that day. Instead he crawled onto Jackie's bed, closed his eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

Lixan, Rose decided, was just as beautiful and wild as the last time they had been there, but she knew that the trip would be a short one. One scan for alien tech and it revealed nothing at all but what they had brought with them. Hell, her mobile phone had shown up as alien tech. Well, considering the place they were wasn't Earth, sure, it was, but usually it didn't include phones, because they were normal in a lot of places past her own time.

It seemed that the idea was to be found in a lot of areas, and planets, then just her own, which was good. It meant a little slice of home, no matter how much it might change, always stayed the same.

Her mum seemed to be doing much better on this planet, smiling and walking in the tall grass, green like she was used to, and running her hands through it. "Wow! This place is gorgeous," Jackie stated out loudly, giving in to the sudden urge to run to a tree not too far away and climb it to see how far out she could scope.

Rose laughed. "Oh yeah, she definitely is in you, if there was any mistake before," she stated to the Doctor who was walking slowly out of the TARDIS and into the open, after having done a quick pick of some of the local flora to see if there was any kind of chemical inside them that could have done this.

He looked over to where Jackie was looking out and around from the highest branch she could get to and snorted. "Just as long as she doesn't break anything falling out of the tree. I'm allergic to your human pain meds."

Smiling, Rose shook her head. "I meant that she's got your energy. Running all over the place she is. Climbing trees. I don't think mum's climbed a tree in her life."

"Well," the Doctor stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She sees a tree and climbs it. Not used to trees in London."

Giggling, Rose ran over to the tree too, looking around at the branches to spot any likely to get her up to where her mum currently was. "Mum! The Doctor says he's allergic to pain meds and not to fall out." She found a branch and climbed up, soon joining her mum at looking around them.

"This is wonderful. I like this place a lot more than the last one," Jackie stated, hugging Rose close to her with one arm, the other used to keep hold of another part of the tree.

Leaning against a familiar shoulder, she smiled and looked out, noticing that the sun was making the mountains off in the distance shine. There must be snow on their peaks. Somehow even the Doctor managed to fit on the same branch and joined them. It hadn't looked this big from the distance they had started at.

"Trees are a lot bigger up close," she said like as if it was the most obscure thing in the universe.

"Usually are Rose," the Doctor replied, breathing a little heavily, but smiling happily out at the view they had.

"Found anything?" Jackie asked, lazy and leaning back against the thick trunk, but not letting go of the branch that they were on, just in case she did fall.

"Got a sample running through the TARDIS's data banks. If it comes up with anything, we should know by the time we get back to the TARDIS."

While they were there for a specific reason, it didn't really seem to matter right then. She had her mum, she had her Doctor, and she had a wonderful view and no fighting. They stayed there for the rest of the day, watching as herds of animals that looked like alien versions of things that might be found on earth wandered by, some of them stopping to sniff at the tree for its leaves, some for its bark, and on one memorable occasion, at them.

As they watched the sun set below the mountains on the distant horizon, the Doctor climbed down, and beckoned the others to follow. Smiling calmly, he grabbed for one of her hands, and the other reached for Jackie's and together the three of them ended up running back to the TARDIS.

By the time they reached the ship, they were laughing and two of them were out of breath. And it hit Rose like a tonne of bricks. Her mum wasn't out of breath, just like the Doctor wouldn't normally be, and her eyes were bright and excited, and she was lightly bobbing up and down on the spot.

For two days almost, they had done no running, and the Doctor's body was used to it. An excess of unspent energy was there, sizzling underneath the surface and it was her mum in there, and it was just weird to think of her mum being so energetic.

The Doctor noticed it too, and giggled in her mum's way which usually stated she was highly amused at something. "Jackie. Go outside and run it off before you give my body any form of caffeine, or you will regret it."

Her mum didn't even bother forming a coherent reply to him, slipping out the door of the TARDIS and disappearing somewhere off to one side. Rose shook her head and grinned back at the Doctor. "You made her hyper."

He shook his head and grinned back. "No, I made me hyper. She just happens to be me. And she won't be getting into any trouble here, so why not? She'll want to sleep. I know she didn't last night. Was the only way I knew to get her calm enough to even try."

Rose nodded. She knew the Doctor didn't need as much sleep as a human would. "How'd you...oh never mind. Silly question."

The Doctor giggled again in the same tone as before. "How'd I know? It's my body Rose. I'm so used to running now that my body uses it as a way to get rid of more than just energy. She'll be getting irritable by now, and that's not something I want to deal with."

A laugh followed the Doctor's comment and she shook her head. "Not looking forward to when she gets angry or irritable. More than she already is, huh? She won't slap you again, Doctor. Don't worry about that."

A shrug followed that, and the humour slowly faded from the room. "It's not her emotions I'm worried about. We're still...integrating you might say. Getting used to being in one another's bodies. It's a bit frustrating. More than a bit really."

"Which is why you cried yesterday?" Rose asked carefully. Something had happened after she had left, but neither had told her what. Maybe it was something the two of them had to work out on their own, but it felt odd being left out of a part of either of their lives.

"Yeah, she hasn't got the same...coping mechanisms as me."

Once again Rose found herself nodding. To all she knew, the Doctor did use the frequent bouts of running they did as some strange form of coping with his own emotions. He'd be completely and utterly overwhelmed by them otherwise.

Not that he didn't have his moments. Right after their visit to 2012, he had ran off to parts unknown in the TARDIS, and she hadn't been able to find him for a good few hours, Adam clinging to her in fright, at the thought of being left alone on an alien ship.

That hadn't been that long ago, now she thought about it. It had only been a few days since they had dropped Adam off home. She hoped for the Doctor's sake that he had gone off to find a dark space somewhere and let out his feelings in a more productive way than running.

Seeing that Dalek had almost shattered him.

Her mum came back a few hours later, out of breath and panting, and her hands were covered in scrapes and dirt. Rose looked her over and frowned. "What happened to you?"

The older woman shifted a bit, looking uncomfortable under the gazes of the other two. She cleared her throat. "I...got into a fight with a tree."

Rose began laughing, though the Doctor didn't. "Feel better?" he asked, looking her up and down.

Jackie nodded. "Yeah, a bit. Guess I needed that."

Now the Doctor smiled, and nodded. "Good! Show me your hands. Hope you didn't break anything."

There were only scrapes and a few bruises, and so the Doctor could easily fix it with his dermal regenerator. Afterwards, her mum was complaining of being sweaty. She wandered off to her bedroom, which now had a bathroom extension and had a quick shower. She joined them for dinner five minutes later.

The Doctor teased her about being so quick.

All in all, Rose thought, as she began eating the veggies in front of her, it had been a rather good day.


End file.
